Surface cleaner



0a. 28, 1932. A. A. THORNE 1,884,387

SURFACE CLEANER Original Filed Nov. 29. 1929 6 SheetsSheet 1 Inventor A/berf A. name A itomey Oct. 25, 1932. THORNE 1,884,387

SURFACE CLEANER Original Filed Nov. 29, 1929 6 SheetsSheet 2 OOL - 49 z 6 20 Inventor Alberz A. 7707726.

A ttorney Oct. 25, 1932. THORNE 1,884,387

SURFAC E CLEANER Original Filed Nov. 29, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 In venior A iberz A 720/726 A iiomey Oct. 25, 1932. THQRNE 1,884,387

SURFACE CLEANER Original Filed Nov. 29, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 II 'W A 'ullllll a II a \l w? I Inveniof A7be7-t A. Tlzoriza.

A iiorney Oct. 25, 1932. A. A. THORNE 1,884,387

SURFACE CLEANER Original Filed Nov. '29. 1929 s Sheets-Sheet 5 Inventor Alba-Z A 7 /207726.

A itorney Oct. 25, 1932. A. A. THORNE 7 1,884,387

SURFACE CLEANER Original Filed Nov. 29, 1929 6 SheetsSheet 6 Inventor Aiberz A. 77207726.

A itorney Patented Oct. 25, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SURFACE CLEANER Application filed November 29, 1929, Serial No. 410,571. Renewed June 8, 1932.

This invention relates to a household appliance which may be generally referred to as a surface cleaner, the same being expressly constructed for cleaning and mopping floors, either in the home, or in larger buildings where floor mopping is a daily task.

The gist of the invention is found in a novel portable device which is manually manipulated and mechanically propelled and which is constructed to accomplish a number of results at a single operation, the same being constructed to clean the floor by a brushing and scrubbing action, and to then wipe the floor substantially dry by a mopping and wiping action.

Briefly stated, the structural novelty is found in an organization of this type which embodies a novel arrangement and association of parts including an appropriately de signed housing containing a pair of reciprocatory fountain brushes arranged to travel in advance of a pair of alternating wiping or mopping devices.

In carrying the invention into effect I have found it practicable and expedient to accomplish these results through the development of a simplified and economical structure characterized by a wheel supported housing which is pushed over the fioor by a knock down handle structure, whereby to insure compactness and convenience in arrangement and to facilitate storage in small quarters.

The particular details and their relative association and mechanical coordinationwill become more readily apparent from the following description and drawings:

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the complete machine or appliance showing the manner in which it is used.

Figure 2 is a top plan View with the cover section of the casing removed to show the in-' ternal mechanism. Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view through the complete structure.

Figures 4 and 5 are transverse sectional viewstaken approximately upon the plane of the lines 14= and 5-5 respectively of Figure 2.

Figure 6 is an enlarged detail cross section on the line 6-6 of Figure 2.

Figure 7 Figure 2. I

Figure 8 is.a fragmentary detail sectional view through one end portion of one of the mopping and wiping devices.

Figure 9 is an elevational view showing the manner in which the dirty water is dumped from the collection tanks into a bucket, pail or the like.

In the drawings, and in Figure 1, for instance, the reference numeral 10 designates generally the casing or housing. This is a two-part structure and comprises a lower or rim section 11 and an upper cover section 12 attached by hinges 13 to the lower section. The latter section is open at its bottom as well as at its top. The complete housing is of general rectangular configuration in cross section.

The housing is pushed over the floor 14 by Way of a handle generally designated by the numeral 15. The handle is of knockdown form and comprises a bail 16 whose arms are pivotally connected to the central portion of the ends of the housing. The bight portion of the bail carries a socket to which the lower section 17 of the handle is connected. Then there is a handle section 18 which is separably connected with the section 17 and which is provided with a cross beam '19 forming a substantially T-shaped handgrip.

The devicein general configuration appears somewhat as the old fashioned carpet sweeper, only it is much larger in proportion. It will be noted that on the rear side of the housing, the rubber squeegee strip 20 is dragged along the surface for finishing it off and slightly polishing it.

I now invite attention to Figure 2 wherein it will be observed that the numeral 21 designates a propulsion shaft on the end of which the bail 16 is mounted. Adjacent the ends and confined within the housing are the floor engaging wheels 22. This arrangement permits the wheels to function as the power means for supplying power to the propulsion shaft 21. The shaft 21 is provided with a is a section on the line 7-7 of central worm gear 23 which has driving connection with a similar worm gear 24 on the crank shaft generally designated by the 12 meral 25.

The crank shaft 25 serves to operate the cleaner assembly. This assembly con'iprlses a gang of individual surface contacting and treating devices. For instance, the front, I provide a pair of complemental fountain brushes generally designated by too refe nce characters 26 and 27 respectively. These are of elongated form and each brush emhod'os a back 28 which is of dished form to function as a receptacle and which is provided with multiplicity of water passages 29. These brushes are arranged in spaced parallel rclat-ion on opposite sides of a cross strip 30 mounted within the casing. Incidentally at the center of this strip is a bracing post 31 having a notch at its top for receiving a portion of the crank shaft.

The cranks 32 and 33 serve to operate the brushes 26 and 27 through the medium of links 34. Each link has a crosshead 35 journalled in bearing cars 36 carried by the brush. The arrangement is such that the brushes are alternately operable in rapid succession.

The brushes are provided with bristles 37 as seen in Figure 4. The water fountain comprises a tank 88 as shown in Figure 3 having a neck provided with a vented filler cap 39. The delivery pipe is indicated at 40 and includes a valve 41 and branches 42 and 43 whose nozzle ends overlie the respective apertured backs of the brushes 26 and 27 as shown. The valve handle 44 is operated by a push-pull rod 45 as seen in Figure 4 so that the valve may be properly regulated to feed the water in a slow dripping manner on the brush head. The water passes throu h the apertures and moistcns the bristles ciently to enable the brushes to scrub thefloor as the device is pushed along the surface.

It is obvious, of course, that the brushes are propelled through the Inedirun of the gearing and rotating shafts 21 and respectively. It will be observ d from Fig-rue 4 that the reference numerals 46 designate vertical struts fastened at their lower ends to the cross strip 30 and suspending the 'ater tank 38 in proper place in the housing.

In addition to the scrubbing and cleaning brushes, I provide a pair of alternately operable reciprocatory wiping or mopping brushes which are generally designated by the reference characters 47 and 48 respectively in Figure 2. These are in spaced parallelism to each other and in longitudinally spaced 1 relation with respect to the brushes to operate in rear of the brushes after the brushes have acted on the floor surface.

In this connection it will be observed that these devices 47 and 48 are provided with j yokes including upstanding ears or flanges 49 with which the crank rods or links 50 are connected, these crank rods in turn being connected with the cranks 52 and 51 of the aforesaid crank shaft to produce the desired alternating action of the mopping devices.

There is a cross strip or plate between the devices 47 and 48 as seen in Figure which carries upstanding bearing posts 54 and a similar bearing post 55. A short shaft is journalled in the bca f the posts 554 as indicated at 56 and provided at its opposite ends with sprocket wheels. Before co; loring the sprocket drive construction however, I desire to describe the construction of each of the devices 47 and 48, and I therefore ir ite attention to Figure 6, wherein it will be seen that each device comprises a hollow rectangular tank 57 having an entrance slot at its top for receiving dirty water which is inoppcd up from the floor.

An endless mop 59 surrounds the tank and the mop is movable in the direction of the arrow A while the complete device is bodily movable in the rcciprocatory manner. To accomplish this movable action of the mop, I provide a wringer structure in cluding an idler roller 60 which is mounted in the tank and has a grooved periphery for cooperation with the correspondinely constructed periphery (31 of the driving roller. Thus the double roller wringer structure serves not only to squeeze the water from the mop into the tank, but serves to feed the mop around the tank as the tank moves back and forth in its rociprocatory fashion.

Incidentally each tank is provided with a suitable drain cook 62.

Attention is again invited to Figure 2, wherein it will be observed that the operating shafts for the wringer rollers include square portions 63 and 64 respectively. The shaft 6-4- is provided with a sprocket wheel cooperating with a companion sprocket wheel on the aforesaid shaft 56 and a sprocket chain 65 is trained over these sprockets.

The shaft 63 receives its power from the sprocket chain 66 which is trained over a sprocket on the aforesaid propeller shaft 21 and there is another short sprocket chain at 67 which is trained over the shaft sprocket 63 and over a companion sprocket on the shaft 56. Thus the shaft 21 imparts rotation'to both of the shafts 63 and (54 by way of the sprocket drives just described.

The square extension shafts 63 and G4 are slidahle through the sprocket Wheels which are mounted thereon to insure constant rotation through the devices 47 and 48 as they are rcciprocated back and forth under the action of the crank shaft and link connection.

The operation of the machine is as follows: The machine is pushed along: the floor as indicated at Figure 1 through the mcdiun'l of the handle 15. The wheels 22 support the housing and permit it to be readily propelled and at the same time impart motion to the propeller shaft 21. The shaft- 21 in turn operates the crank shaft which through the medium of the cranks and the links serves to simultaneously operate the brushes 26' and 27, together with the wiping or mopping devices i? and 48 respectively.

The arrangement as shown in Figure 2 permits the brushes and mopping devices to reciprocate back and forth in an intermittent alternating manner to insure full coveras of the space traversed by the machine.

t is obvious that the cleaning action is acconplished by feeding water slowly into the e 'pcacle-like heads of the brushes and allowing i to drip through the holes 29 to moisten the bristles. The bristles thus scrub the floor. The surplus dirty water is then picked up by the rotating and reciprocating mops. The water is squeezed from the mops into the collecting tank where it accumulates until dump-ed out into the pail as seen in Figure 9. As the floor is mopped, the squeegee comes along and finishes off the surface in a clean polished manner.

careful consideration of the description in connection with the drawings will enable the reader to obtain a clear understanding of the construction, the operation, and the features and advantages of the improved machine. Therefore, a more lengthy description is regarded as unnecessary.

Minor changes in shape, size and rearrangement of details coming within the field of invention claimed may be resorted to in act al practice if desired.

1 claim:

1. in a machine of the class described, a support, a propeller shaft carried by said sup port, crank shaft mounted on said support, rating connection between said shafts, i ing devices mounted in said housing and operatively connected with said crank shaft for simultaneous reciprocation in opposite direction, each of said devices including an endless mop which is mounted for continuous movement while reciprocating.

2. In a machine of the class described, a support, a propeller shaft carried by said support, crank shaft mounted on said support, an operating connection between said shafts, and mopping and wiping devices mounted on said housing and operatively connected with said crank shaft for simultaneous reciprocation in opposite direction, each of said devices including an endless mop which is mounted for continuous movement while reciprocating, wringers carried by said devices and cooperable with the mop for squeezing the water therefrom, and col lection tanks for receiving t 1e water.

3. In a portable floor cleaning machine of the class described, a hollow housing, an operating handle therefor, a. shaft mounted for rotation in the housing, surface engaging wheels mounted on said shaft, a longitudinal- 1y extending crank shaft mounted for rotation in said housing and intersecting said first named shaft, an operating connection between said shafts, mopping and wiping devices in said housing, said devices being disposed for simultaneous reciprocation in opposite directions, operating connections between said devices and crank shaft, each of said devices comprising a hollow tank for collection of the dirty water, an endless mop novable around said tank, together with a wringer for acting on said mop to squeeze the water therefrom into the tank, and operating means for the wringer operatively connected with the first named shaft.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

ALBERT ATHIEL THORNE. 

